Month: April 2020

Crowds swarm Stockholm’s waterfront, with some people sipping cocktails in the sun. In much of the world, this sort of gathering would be frowned upon or even banned.Not in Sweden.It doesn’t worry Anders Tegnell, the country’s chief epidemiologist and top strategist in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.The 63-year-old has become a household name in …

Read more “As Virus Deaths Rise, Sweden Sticks to ‘Low-Scale’ Lockdown”

Spain is loosening some of its coronavirus restrictions Monday with workers in the manufacturing and construction sectors allowed to go back to work. With the threat of spreading the virus still present, companies are required to provide employees with protective equipment and make sure they maintain the recommended two meters of spacing from other workers. Spain has been …

Read more “Spain Allowing Some Workers to Return to Jobs”

Master chocolatier Dominique Persoone stood forlorn on his huge workfloor, a faint smell of cocoa lingering amid the idle machinery — in a mere memory of better times.  Easter Sunday is normally the most important date on the chocolate makers’ calendar. But the coronavirus pandemic, with its lockdowns and social distancing, has struck a hard blow to …

Read more “Bunnies to the Rescue as Virus Hits Belgian Chocolatiers”

Italy is reporting its lowest number of new coronavirus deaths in three weeks and officials say hospitalization, including the number of patients admitted to intensive care, are also down. Italy has been Europe’s COVID-19 hot spot with more than 156,000 confirmed cases overall. But some Italian experts say the actual number may be much higher because of the high rate of fatalities in nursing homes where many of the …

Read more “Italy Reports Lowest Number of New COVID Deaths in 3 Weeks”

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu resigned late Sunday, taking responsibility for a poorly timed announcement of a weekend coronavirus curfew that prompted thousands of people to rush into the streets.Soylu is one of the most senior figures in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.  In a statement posted on his Twitter account, Soylu said: “Responsibility …

Read more “Turkish Minister Resigns Over Criticism of Weekend Lockdowns”

Julian Assange’s partner revealed Sunday that she had two children with him while he lived inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and she issued a plea for the WikiLeaks founder to be released from prison over fears for his health during the coronavirus pandemic.Assange has been imprisoned at London’s Belmarsh prison since police dragged out …

Read more “Assange’s Partner Reveals They had 2 Children and Urges Bail”

Greek forces are on heightened alert as reports have surfaced that Turkey is preparing to push through a fresh wave of migrants to Europe. Officials in Athens say, they fear that refugees infected with the coronavirus may be among the new wave of asylum seekers.Greek government officials contacted by VOA say the heightened alert follows …

Read more “Greece Fears Turkey Plans to Send Streams of Migrants Infected with Coronavirus to Europe “

Pope Francis addressed a world severely tested by the coronavirus, saying this is not a time for indifference because everyone is suffering and must be united. In his Easter message, he said that for many this is a time of worry about an uncertain future, about jobs that are at risk and about other consequences …

Read more “Pope: At This Time of Pandemic, No Time for Indifference and Division”

Elderly people may have to be kept isolated until the end of the year to protect them from the coronavirus, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in comments published Sunday.”Without a vaccine, we have to limit as much as possible contact with the elderly,” she told the Germany daily Bild.”I know it’s difficult and …

Read more “EU Chief: Social Isolation for Elderly May Last Until Year’s End”

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson was making “very good progress” Saturday in his recovery in a hospital from coronavirus, officials said, as the country’s death toll from the disease approached the grim milestone of 10,000.The 55-year-old leader was spending his second full day out of intensive care at London’s St. Thomas’ Hospital, where he has …

Read more “Britain’s Johnson Makes ‘Good Progress’ in Virus Recovery”

One inmate has been found dead after a riot and a blaze swept through a Russian prison under a coronavirus lockdown in eastern Siberia, authorities said on April 11.Independent news outlets reported that about 300 inmates were injured in the incident at Prison No. 15 in Angarsk, Irkutsk region.Trouble erupted on April 9 with authorities …

Read more “One Dead, Hundreds Injured in Russian Prison Riot, Fire”

Greek health officials have quarantined one of the country’s biggest Gypsy, or Roma, camps, scrambling to contain the spread of the coronavirus after multiple cases were detected there.         The squalid settlement of 3,000 on the outskirts of the city of Larissa, 216 kilometers north of Athens, was locked down after at …

Read more “Greek Roma Camp Quarantined to Limit Spread of COVID-19”